Divers identify the wreck of a ship sunk off Maine in 1944

Volunteer divers have identified the S.S. Cornwallis in the Atlantic off Maine, more than 80 years after it sank.

The ship was travelling from Barbados to New Brunswick in December 1944 when a German U-boat torpedoed it after dropping off two Nazi spies in Maine.

Only five of the 48 crew members survived, among the many merchant mariners killed while carrying supplies during the Second World War.

The ship’s exact location was unknown until the Nomad Exploration Team began searching in 2019.

In July, the divers found the wreck about 16 kilometres from an island off Maine, 122 metres below the surface, and confirmed its identity.

The discovery gives families a known place to remember those lost, including the relatives of crew members David H. Stewart and James Roy.